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Foxygen

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Foxygen

Foxygen
Foxygen is a band from California. The band-members (multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Rado and singer Sam France) grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village and started the band in 2005 when they were both just 15-year-old high school freshmen.  Apart from sharing a voracious love of classic albums from The Ramones to Led Zeppelin, the two bonded over a shared inspiration after watching the rockumentary DIG! together. Learning that Anton Newcombe- the mastermind behind The Brian Jonestown Massacre and key subject of the film- played up to 75 different instruments on his band's albums inspired the youths to learn as many different instruments as possible themselves. The pair worked on about ten home-recorded, self-distributed albums in their high school days, eventually parting ways when it was time to go off to college. The two eventually reunited after college and they were eventually signed to legendary indie label Jagjaquwar Records. Their first album, Take the Kids Off Broadway, was released in 2012. It wasn't until their second album was released that I became aware of these dudes and really jumped on board. Their second album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, was released in January 2013 and was met with critical acclaim. It's not every year an album comes out in January and you already know it's going to be one of the best albums of the year. Their second album is about as flawless of an album as it gets. It is often cited as one of the best psychedelic albums of the 2010's, and it's easy to see why. My personal favorite from that album is "San Fransisco," or you know what, maybe it's "No Destruction," on second thought- I don't know if I can pick a favorite from that album- it's that good! They followed that up in 2014 with their third album, the indulgent and unhinged, ...And Star Power. It's a double-album loosely based around the fictional band Star Power (Think Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie or when the Beatles donned themselves into the Sgt. Pepper's...). The band released their theatrical  fourth album, Hang, in 2017, an album the band said was a concept album. The duo expressed their hope to create an album characterized by rock music mixed with the Hollywood style musical of the 30s. Allegedly, Hang is their first ever album to be recorded in a studio, prior to that their albums and songs were all conducted and recorded at home. Their latest album was 2018's Seeing Other People, a "break up album of sorts" which was the led with the lead single "Livin' A Lie." So there you have it: basically the band's biography up to this point in 2020. After their rapid ascent into stardom, there were rumors of the band breaking up- but it never come to fruition, however, after Seeing Other People came out, the band did announce it was taking an indefinite hiatus from touring. If you are a fan of classic rock, the schizophrenic years of the Stones, and new psych bands like Tame Impala or Flaming Lips, you will definitely like these guys. As for the band name, I'll let Sam explain that one, "It was something my friend said about a guy that she found attractive. She said he was sexy or hot, or that he was her foxygen, or something like that. We were probably about 13. I don't know why, but it stuck." And that's everything you need to know, from here until then.
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Foxygen

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